“So what’s the problem? “What concerns me about the avalanche of shooters we see at E3 every year is the way they’re showcased as the very best the industry can do,” Abbott tells Gamasutra. “We’re told these are important groundbreaking games, but we can see for ourselves they aren’t. This year the endless stream of violence felt more like pandering than ever, and I felt bored and alienated. And old. Every E3 is pitched to the same 14-year-old adolescent male as the one before. And every year I have less in common with that boy.””

“Hunicke agrees that there can be a falloff in joyful media as consumers age. Perhaps in their quest for “adult realism,” games can forget that surprise, joy and ease are things people want at all ages — perhaps especially adults, as reality can be devilish enough, and mature audiences may want more pleasurable escapes than further simulation of the horrors of the “real”.
“Children’s books and films are often quite joyful, and their software and games are too,” she says.”Somehow, we get to a place where we step away from having that feeling on a regular basis. That’s definitely something we should work on — don’t you think?””